The twelfth Berlin Biennale is called Still Present. It could be a simple evidence: artists are present. But, as Kader Attia, artist himself and commissioner of the event, says, “being present here is not just about being seen. It is to take a position on essential subjects. Why, if not one more exhibition, particularly in the current situation? Still Present means still alive ! : still alive”. Still at Warstill at war, would have been a more fitting title for this Biennale made up of incisive questions, stories that hurt, painful details.
Kader Attia states the purpose thus: “Colonialism, slavery, imperialism are the wounds from which our time suffers, because they have not been healed. It is essential to tackle it so that our societies can live together, even if certain evils cannot be repaired. Art is needed more than ever today, to share a new vision in a world that was built on denials and crimes, a vision that humanity must make its own. » Rewrite the history of the XXe century from the point of view of the suffering inflicted on the vanquished by the victors is the raison d’être of the Biennale.
For this purpose, it brings together about one hundred and fifty artists, the presence of collectives making the approximate figure. Whatever their age, genre, mode of expression and particular subject, this desire for investigation and memory is what they have in common. Many have others, such as being born far from the Western world or being the child of immigrant parents, being ignored by the international market which does not like political subjects and, as a result, being little exposed outside of circumstances such as this one. To its immense intellectual interest, the Biennale thus adds another, just as precious: to multiply discoveries and revelations. If we find Clément Cogitore or Mathieu Pernot there, on the French side, India, Vietnam and the Middle East are much more present here than they usually are in events of this type.
Five places
Before we get to them, some practical details. The Biennale is divided into five locations. It cannot be visited in less than two days and requires endurance: you walk a lot, you climb a lot of stairs and the use of the metro is recommended. Four of these places are artistic by destination: the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the two buildings of the Akademie der Künste – art academy – and the Hamburger Bahnhof, museum of contemporary art in Berlin. The fifth is less expected: the former buildings of the Stasi – the secret police of the communist GDR – which have become part of the museum of this police force and its craziness of filing and filing. Placing works there, which deal with the current hypertrophy of algorithmic surveillance and manipulation of citizens, is logical: the present copies the past, with the power of the digital in addition.
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